A brutal murderer has been allowed to walk free three times a week to “refamiliarise himself with the community” and develop his computer skills, despite the Parole Board deeming him too dangerous for release.

Jason Butler is one of a group of convicted killers who have swapped jail for mental health units while serving life sentences, becoming special patients under the Mental Health (Compulsory Assessment and Treatment) Act.

As a result, they can get up to a week’s unsupervised leave while under treatment, depending on doctors’ recommendations, which must be approved by the director of mental health.

But some of their victims’ families and friends are calling for an urgent review of such killers’ leave after murderer Phillip Smith’s brazen escape to Brazil during temporary leave from Waikato’s Spring Hill prison last month.

His escape led to a temporary halt of all inmates’ leave and a Corrections Department review, but it didn’t include convicted offenders in mental health care.

A ministerial inquiry was launched to probe Smith’s escape, but it was yet unknown whether it would include special patients’ leave.

“I think it bloody sucks because in two hours, he could be on my doorstep. That fellow got to Brazil, mate,” the best friend of Butler’s victim said about his three-times-a-week unsupervised leave.

If he is so inclined, he can leave a trail of destruction in mere hours. And this is what needs to be balanced before letting them go on unsupervised Tiki-tours. Read more »

Knowing that their wedding would cause a huge stir in the press, John Lennon and Yoko Ono decided to use their honeymoon to help champion world peace. On March 25, 1969, five days after their wedding, the duo climbed into the bed of room 902 at the Amsterdam Hilton and called the media. Because of their well known proclivity for appearing in the nude, the press assumed that Ono and Lennon would have sex in front of the cameras. Instead, the two appeared in pyjamas and talked about world peace.

One of New Zealand’s most sadistic killers is still refusing to accept responsibility for elements of his crime.

Hayden Taylor has spent more than 17 years in jail, serving dual sentences of life imprisonment and preventive detention after murdering pregnant teenager Nicola Rankin in September 1996 while on bail for raping former street worker Amanda Watt.

Taylor was denied parole at a Parole Board hearing earlier this month. Read more »

Stewart Murray Wilson is tonight back behind bars after he allegedly breached the conditions of his parole by phoning someone he shouldn’t have.

Department of Corrections assistant general manager services Maria McDonald confirmed the department had successfully applied for an interim recall to prison for the man – dubbed the Beast of Blenheim.

The Parole Board considered the application this afternoon and Mr Wilson has since been returned to prison. Read more »

Kiwis are getting fed up with crim hugging, panty waist judges. I don’t believe that vigilantism is the right way to go, but it may be the lesser of two
evils. Get the justice sorted and this will not be necessary.

A paedophile released after eight years in prison for crimes that included the drugging and violation of young boys has been driven from Turangi by a firebomb attack on his house.

Darren Simon Kihi – who has committed crimes against as many as 28 victims – was released from prison to live in Turangi last Sunday, after temporarily living in Taupo.

He was moved there because there was no room at a home in another town that offered support for sex offenders, a Parole Board report reveals.

The April report, released to the Waikato Times, said Kihi was at “very-high” risk of reoffending upon release, and the 42-year-old would pose a threat “almost immediately upon release”, without supervision.

However, a month later the Parole Board agreed to release him to Turangi, where he’d been on work release for two years, and had guaranteed employment.

He was also placed on an extended supervision order which restricted his movements. While the Turangi community weren’t privy to the extent of Kihi’s offending, which took place elsewhere, they demanded the Corrections Department remove him.

But residents’ frustrations boiled over this week, culminating in a molotov cocktail attack on Kihi’s Paekiri St house about 6am yesterday. He was not home at the time.

The blast caused internal damage, rendering the house uninhabitable.

Meanwhile another crim thought fighting in court was the go. In a country with a REAL justice system, this idiot would be charged with assault for every one he was struggling with, given the maximum sentence on each case to be served sequentially after the initial sentence had been completed. He’ll probably get victim support.

A bloody fight akin to a bar-room brawl erupted in the New Plymouth District Court this morning.

After being sentenced to nine years jail for a violent robbery, Michael Hutchinson, 37, turned on Shannon Glen, 20, his smaller co-offender standing in the dock beside him and rained punches on Glen and bit him on the shoulder.

An extended fight ensued as prison officers, police and court security staff all tried to get Hutchinson off Glen.

Once Glen was freed the brawl moved to the ground, continuing for several minutes as Hutchinson continued to fight the pile of enforcement staff on top of him.